This is why software patents are stupid. Microsoft just lost a patent infringement lawsuit brought by a company called Eolas over the use of browser plugins. The reason this is stupid is that Microsoft is infringing because their browser automatically launches applications to display multimedia content.

http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5074799.html

Patents were intended for innovations, not ideas. Having the idea of launching a program automatically isn’t an innovation. If there were a hard problem associated with it, maybe if it was hard to figure out when to launch it, and you spent time solving it then your solution could be pantentable.

I think on my way home today I’ll stop by the patent office and file a patent for “automatically allowing light to pass through a surface so things on the other side can be seen.” Oh, and I’ll also file the other 50 stupid patent ideas I come up with while driving there.

It’s not hard to see why we’re in this mess with patents — the US patent office was commissioned on the number of patents they allow per year. Now that’s a good idea!!